Tagged: warren workman

Everything I Am

Robert Lopshire’s Put Me in the Zoo has emerged as one of Turtle Biscuit’s favorite bedtime stories. I’ve also grown to appreciate this story over time. The main lesson that what you want is not necessarily the best thing for you, and in fact there may be something even better out there if you open yourself up to that possibility is one that resonates with a person of any age.

I’m not quite sure if Turtle Biscuit understands the nuances of this story, but it is clear that understands the plot twist. She appears open to the possibility of changing one’s ambitions.

Put Me in the Zoo was still on my mind this morning while I was at the gym and Kanye’s “Everything that I am” came on.

The two pieces are very similar. The refrain in “Everything I Am”:

Everything I’m not, made me everything I am

Reminded me of the moral of Lopshire’s story. Being forced to recognize that he was not a zoo animal allowed the leopard to find a home in the circus. Whether you consider his spot changing antics tricks, or as Turtle Biscuit likes to opine him “being silly,” the truth of the matter is that the leopard is an artist. Exiled from the zoo he finds a home in the circus.

And as Kanye makes plain his insecurities in “Everything I Am”, he too reminds the listener that like it or not, we are often defined by what we are not–therefore it is incumbent to embrace all that we are:

Damn, here we go again
Everybody saying what’s not for him
But everything I’m not, made me everything I am